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Leonard Nimoy

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Location: Being congratulated on the bridge of the Enterprise after making captain

Re: Does Data have a soul?

Data surely doesn't have a soul. That is, if by 'soul' you're referring to an immaterial part of his essence that will survive his physical death. Dr. Soong was brilliant, but I doubt he could have created a soul for Data.

He's Admiral Buzzkill, what do you expect. Despite numerous examples provided in this thread alone of people having some sort of lifeforce that carries their personality and consciousness. In the Star Trek universe.

Also I don't see the Bajorans as being portrayed as universally religious fanatics.

Kai Winn in In The Hands Of The Prophets wasn't insisting on religion in education because she believed it, it was because she thought it'd score political points. Which describes pretty much every red state politician there is in the US, they use religion to pander to the cash-shelling hyper-religious minority.

We have seen very religious Bajorans, but we've also met a Bajoran atheist (Ro), and although Bareil was a religious figure he was a secularist.

Teaching religon as a whole is not wrong, it is only wrong if they are trying to teach religious beliefs as part of science fact (as we understand it today).

People want to believe the Earth is only 6000 years old, or creationism, intelligent design etc.. fine, but keep it in religious classes not science classes.

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On the continent of wild endeavour in the mountains of solace and solitude there stood the citadel of the time lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe looking down on the galaxies below sworn never to interfere only to watch.

One thing the storyline with Data forgot is that whenever you hit his off switch, he's completely off. Switch him back on, he's conscious again, like a computer.

Same thing with the Doctor on VOY and he had much more emotional expression than Data.

Ah, but is that death?

Then again, issues of death become odd since we had humans dead for 200 years revived.

That's true, but at what point after Data is shut down does his essence or "neural energy" leaves his positronic net and go to some afterlife that everybody else goes to?

Does he even have "neural energy" because his brain is mechanical??

The Old Mixer wrote:

... it's worth noting that even Picard, the poster boy for Roddenberry's latter-day vision of Trek, seemed to believe in a higher power, though one that didn't necessarily conform to a specific religion. He discussed this in "Where Silence Has Lease":

One thing the storyline with Data forgot is that whenever you hit his off switch, he's completely off. Switch him back on, he's conscious again, like a computer.

Same thing with the Doctor on VOY and he had much more emotional expression than Data.

Ah, but is that death?

Then again, issues of death become odd since we had humans dead for 200 years revived.

That's true, but at what point after Data is shut down does his essence or "neural energy" leaves his positronic net and go to some afterlife that everybody else goes to?

Does he even have "neural energy" because his brain is mechanical??

The Old Mixer wrote:

... it's worth noting that even Picard, the poster boy for Roddenberry's latter-day vision of Trek, seemed to believe in a higher power, though one that didn't necessarily conform to a specific religion. He discussed this in "Where Silence Has Lease":

when Neelix dies for 16 hours and is resurrected feels a loss that he didn't end up under that great tree in his "afterlife". That episode heavily implies there is no soul

I interpret that episode like this: The very fact that Neelix was able to be brought back is proof that he was never dead in the first place. So the only way he could have moved on to his afterlife was if he was truly dead. They brought him back, so therefore, he was never REALLY dead.

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"A hot dog at the ballpark is better than a steak at the Ritz." - Humphrey Bogart

I interpret that episode like this: The very fact that Neelix was able to be brought back is proof that he was never dead in the first place. So the only way he could have moved on to his afterlife was if he was truly dead. They brought him back, so therefore, he was never REALLY dead.

That happens on how you define dead. If you mean "pulseless," it's possible that one could be resuscitated if help arrives quickly enough. If you mean that one's soul has passed into another realm of existence, that's another matter altogether.